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Tips for Shooting the Aurora Borealis

The Preparation

When shooting the Northern Lights, there is a bit of homework that should be conducted before traveling to attempt to get any shots. This step is often overlooked and can lead to poor results when ignored.

Scout locations by satellite view on Google Maps prior to travel
Focus your location search on areas free of light pollution, I use DarkSiteFinder.com
Map out as many possible locations as possible so that you can have a variety of foregrounds in your shots.
Download the “Aurora” app on your phone so that you can stay up to date with aurora forecasts during your trip.
Visit the sites that you plan to shoot during the day so you can check for road conditions, whether the location is as good as it appeared on the map, etc… You may want to take an odometer reading from a reference point in order to be able to come back in the dark.
Check Weather and gauge your activities based on whether you can see the stars or not.
Okay, you have done the preparation and you are ready to leave to go shoot the Aurora! Well, not so fast. Before leaving to shoot the Aurora, I would recommend pre-focusing your lens (I will get into that in a minute).

What equipment is needed for shooting the Aurora?

In order to have the best chances of shooting the Aurora, I would recommend the following equipment:

DSLR or Mirrorless camera that can shoot in manual mode
A fast wide Angle lens somewhere in the 14-24 mm range. By fast, I am referring to the aperture; an f/2.8 is what I used and it was fine, but if you have a f/1.4 or f/1.8 that should work well.
A sturdy tripod. Nothing is worse than taking long exposure photos on a tripod that can’t stay still ruining all of your shots.
A remote shutter release – in order to minimize camera vibration, you will want to actuate your shutter with a remote and not touch your camera at all.
A Headlamp – It’s dark out there
A lawn chair
A slower runner than you if there are bears

Let’s talk about Focus

Before leaving to go to your location, you will want to Pre-Focus your lens. Once you are out in the dark, it is difficult to get proper focus, so this is very important.

By using the Photopills app, you should be able to look up the Hyperfocal length of your lens and camera combination. According to the Hyperfocal Table in the Photopills app, my 14mm wide angle will reach hyperfocal distance in approx 8 feet at f/2.8; meaning that if I focus on something 9 feet away, I my background will remain in focus.

I pick an object outside of the hyperfocal length and get tack sharp focus on it. In order to check, I look at other objects further away to make sure that they are in focus as well. Once I have my lens dialed in, I disable Autofocus and using Gaffer tape, I tape down the focus ring of the lens. Once taped, take a picture and zoom in to confirm that you are tack sharp, if not, you could end up hunting and pecking in the dark, which is no good.

Camera Settings to Start

Camera settings are going to vary given the environmental conditions, but I would say a good start would be to try to keep Shutter Speed around 4 – 6 seconds, the aperture open all the way (in my case f/2.8) and then adjust ISO accordingly to get the exposure that you want. I found that shooting around iso of 5000 was about right for me.

One Last Thing

While you are out there shooting the Aurora Borealis, don’t forget one thing – Have fun with it. It is unbelievably beautiful and it is an experience that you will never forget.

Sweden – The Language, The Food and The Culture

Recently, I traveled to Sweden to visit several friends. This journey was a lot of fun and I was able to get some great shots too!

My friends pulled out all of the stops to make sure that I had a great time. I told them that I wanted to experience the language, the food and the culture; they did not disappoint.

The Language

For several months prior to going to Sweden, I tried to pickup some Swedish via an online program DuoLingo. My attempts at the language kept us entertained. Essentially, I have the vocabulary of a 2 year old, so my ability to converse was quite limited. I was successful in ordering food and reading directions on a map, but that’s about it.

When I was out on the town by myself, I found it helpful to understand a little of the language as I navigated the city of Stockholm. Of course, studying the layout of the city for several weeks in advance of my trip made it mush easier.

The Food

You have not had Swedish Meatballs until you have had meatballs made by my friend’s girlfriend’s family. These meatballs were so good, I just could not get enough of them. We also ate reindeer with ligonberry jam and moose.

Sweden is also known for their Cinnamon buns called “Kanelbullar.” I found the most amazing bakery in Stockholm called Gunarsson’s Konditori. If you visit Stockholm, I would highly recommend that you stop by Gunnarsson’s for some Kanelbullar and a confection called the Picasso. The Picasso is a Pistachio cake with pineapple coated in a pistachio candied shell. This place is a real treat.

Wanting to make sure that I had an authentic Swedish culinary experience, my friends also had me try Surstromming. For those who do not know, Surstromming is femented Baltic Sea Herring; this really means that it is rotted fish. I would describe Surstromming somewhere along the lines of Whale puke, but worse. I ate it. If you are looking for an entertaining subject to search on YouTube, look up “Surstromming” and you will see how wonderful it really is.

The Culture

While visiting Sweden, I got to experience the Swedish culture and it was quite the learning experience. First of all, the Swedish people are very friendly. I hard to look very hard to find a rude Swede.

Something that I immediately noticed was that the Swedish people do not talk to strangers unless in situations where it is necessary. While riding on the subway, expect to see everyone trying to avoid eye contact and keeping to themselves. Some may interpret this to be antisocial behavior, but I observed that it was actually out of respect for everyone else. The Swedish people have unwritten rules of social interaction that avoid making people feel uncomfortable and avoid confrontation.

While the social behaviors of strangers seemed distant and unconnected, it was my experience that anyone I spoke to was very friendly and helpful.

Another thing about the culture in Sweden is that immediately it is clear that the Swedish people care about their country and the environment. Everywhere I went, the streets and subways were clean; even the bathrooms in the subways were clean.

My friends treated me more like family than a friend. They brought me into their home, introduced me to their extended family and showed me around. I never really felt like a visitor, more like I belonged there.

This trip will be something that I will look back on for many years to come with great memories and gratitude to my friends.

Click here to see my images from Sweden

Alabama Constitution Village

By David Morefield

While visiting Huntsville, Alabama for a family reunion, my son and I visited the Alabama Consitution Village. The Alabama Constitution Village was great! I had no idea that the State of Alabama’s Constitution was signed in Huntsville, Alabama back in 1819 in order to organize the State of Alabama as the 22nd state in the union.

The Alabama Constitution Village is full of the sights, sounds and smells of what would have been there back in the early 1800s.

We visited the John Boardman’s Print Shop where they allow you to operate the old press and print something off of a plate. Once printed, you then place your print on stacked cheesecloth drying racks and wait 2 days for the ink to dry. You leave the John Boardman’s Print Shop with the smell of ink still in your nostrils and a sense of respect for how long it took to get anything printed. A run of 500 prints could take three days to complete, assuming the plate was ready to go. The shop has many letters of the alphabet that can be arranged on a plate in order to print something. These letters are arranged in two separate cases, one on top of the other and in order of the alphabet. Capitol letters are kept in the top case, while the small letters are kept on the bottom. This is the origin of calling a letter that is Capitalized an “Uppercase” letter as opposed to a “Lowercase” letter.

Clement Comer’s Law Library is also onsite and offers a glimpse of what it was like to be an attorney preparing for a case back in the early 1800’s. There is also the Federal Land Surveyor’s office, a Post Office, a Blacksmith’s Shop and sheriff Stephen Neal’s residence.

Of course, my favorite place at Alabama Constitution Village is the Cabinetmaker’s shop. They have craftsmen that still build things in the cabinetmaker’s shop the same way that they did back in the early 1800’s. Some of the tools are just genius and although they operate differently, the function of the tools remains the same.

There are two lathes; one is a handcrank lathe that requires one person to turn the lathe with a big spoked wheel while the other uses a chisel and the other is pedal powered lathe that is counterbalanced by a hickory branch suspended form the ceiling. looking at these tools, I was impressed with the engineering that went into how make them.

There was also a bandsaw that was also pedal powered and counterbalanced from a hickory branch along the ceiling. Basically, you would push the pedal down in order to move to sawblad down and then when you release the pedal, the tension on the branch would return the sawblade to the up position. The cabinetmaker showed us how easily his pedal powered saw cut through the wood. Of course, I am sure it takes practice to find the rhythm in order to make consistent cuts.

I love word etiology and one of the things that I learned is that once you had useda handmade nail in a door, you had to knock the end of the nail to the side. Once this had been done, the nail could not be reused. This brought the term, “Dead as a doornail” into common usage.

Panama City Beach Florida

By David Morefield

This past week, my family and I went to Panama City Beach, Florida. I have great memories of Panama City Beach as a kid, so I not only get to relive those memories, but make new ones whenever I go back.

The first morning that we were in Florida, my family and I went to Wright Baptist Church in Fort Walton Beach, Florida where my cousin Jeremy Gates is the pastor. After church, we went to lunch and caught up on the past twenty years. I had not seen my cousin since I was in High School, so it was great to get to spend some time with him and meet his wife and daughter.

Tuesday afternoon, we rented a pontoon boat from Adventures at Sea and took it to Shell Island. If you have never gone to Shell Island, then I would highly recommend checking it out while you are in Panama City Beach. Shell Island is located across the bay from Tyndell Air Force Base and is not inhabited. Basically, you find a place to anchor your boat and then walk through the island to the other side where you can have a beach all to yourself. While snorkeling in the bay, we found starfish and countless sand dollars; which was a whole lot of fun. I even had a puffer fish follow me around for a while.

Wednesday morning, I woke up early and drove down the Russell-Fields Pier otherwise know as the City Pier. It was a cloudy morning and there were some ominous clouds in the sky, but thunderstorms come and go quickly in Panama City beach, so I figured I would get to the pier and see how the weather was. As I got out of my truck lightning struck the water about 500 meters past the pier, so I quickly aborted the photo shoot that morning. I ended up going to Thomas Donuts to pickup up breakfast and returned to the beach house as a hero.

The weather was more favorable the next morning, so I went back out to the pier around 5am. I love to shoot early in the morning and the light was perfect. The clouds in the sky reflect the colors of the sunrise and I just love the colors that can be captured at that time of morning.

The Russell-Fields Pier is a 1,500 foot long pier that provides not only some great fishing, but some fantastic views of the Panama City Beach coastline. I ended up staying out at the pier for a couple hours watching all of the activity. In retrospect, I was glad that I did not go to the pier earlier in the week. I observed Black Tip Sharks swimming within 30 feet of the shoreline and it’s probably best that I was blissfully ignorant of this earlier in the week while at the beach. I think sharks are cool as long as they are behind glass, but swimming in open water with them is not my idea of fun.

At the end of the week, we all felt recharged and had a great time. The beach house that we stayed in was great for a family week at the beach and was actually cheaper than staying in a hotel. If you are headed to Panama City Beach, Florida and you are looking for a recommendation of where to stay, look no further. The beach house that we stayed in not only had a great kitchen, but it even had an icemaker in the wet bar. This meant that I did not have to run out for ice everyday before walking out the backdoor to the beach, which was awesome. Here is the link to the Beachfront Oasis.

Pixel Party at HMNS

By David Morefield

Last night, I attended the Houston Museum of Natural Science’s “Pixel Party.” Basically, this is an evening where the museum staff invite photographers to come into the museum when the museum is closed and take pictures at their Pixel Party. Upon posting the pictures, we are then encouraged to post them online to our Blog and on Social Media sites with the hashtag #pixelparty

There were three exhibits that were open for the Pixel Party – “The Cave Paintings of Lascaux”, “Hall of Ancient Egypt” and “The Hall of the Americas.”

The Cave Paintings of Lascaux were discovered by four boys in Dordogne, France. Dubbed the “Sistine Chapel of Prehistory”, the the Lascaux Cave is a jewel of prehistoric art and one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th Century. The cave was closed in the 1960s in order to preserve the original paintings, but for 10 years, french artist Monique Peytral documented and reproduced the paintings of the Hall of the Bulls and Axial Gallery. This work became known as “Lascaux 2” and is a life sized replica that is open for visitors today. The frescos painted on the walls of the cave depict horses, bulls, deer, cats and even the unicorn. These paintings also challenge the perception that prehistoric man was a hunter-gatherer, due to the picture of a man charging at a Bison.

The Hall of Ancient Egypt is a permanent display at the Museum of Natural Science and displays pieces of antiquity from Egypt. There are sarcophagus and mummies, pottery, jewelry and other items from the times of Ancient Egypt. Of all of the ancient civilizations, the Egyptians have captivated the minds and imaginations of the world. With their pyramids, mummification process of their dead and their advanced knowledge of Mathematics and Science, it seems that the Egyptians were able to accomplish super human feats with much less than we have today. Simply take a look at the size of the massive sarcophagus with a green face and then ask yourself, “How did they lift this thing with such precision?” This was definitely my favorite exhibit in the museum. I have seen the exhibit at the British Museum in London and while this one is smaller, it is still a fine display and you won’t have to fly to England to see it!

The Hall of the the Americas was a collection of artifacts from North and South America. This display changes over time as the museum staff rotates the artifacts on display. There are some items that they only display for a while and then replace it with something else. This keeps the exhibit new for people who may have already seen the exhibit before. Among the items on display are a totem pole, an Amazonian headdress and many pieces of Native American clothing.

Everyone who came to the Pixel Party seemed to be having a great time and it is always an enjoyable experience to be surrounded by those who share your passion. There were photographers from small to large, amateur to Professional; but at the end of the day, everyone was having a great time.

As you can see from the picture above, reflections could not be avoided in most cases. Instead of avoidance, I decided to embrace the reflections that I found in order to get an interesting perspective of the museum that most visitors probably do not see themselves. By shooting through three displays at one time, I was able to create a prism-like effect that magnified the number of items that I could get into frame. It was like playing with a big kaleidoscope in Ancient Egypt, quite fun if I must say so myself.

I would like to thank the Houston Museum of Natural Science for the opportunity to come and shoot inside the museum and I look forward to going back in the future.

Tips for Shooting the Aurora Borealis

The Preparation

What equipment is needed for shooting the Aurora?

Let’s talk about Focus

Camera Settings to Start

One Last Thing

Sweden – The Language, The Food and The Culture

The Language

The Food

The Culture

Click here to see my images from Sweden

Alabama Constitution Village

Pixel Party at HMNS

Helpful Tips and Other News

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Kenya Mission Trip January 2018

Kenya Flood Relief – How to Help

Photography Tutorials

Tips for Shooting the Aurora Borealis